Murder defendant, woman indicted for allegedly threatening witness

Accused murderer Jules Black, 30, in Cumberland County Superior Courtduring his 2017 pre-trial detention hearing. He is accused in the death of Christian Rodgers.(Photo: Justin Odendhal/Staff Photograph)

BRIDGETON – Vineland murder defendant Jules R. Black now is charged with conspiring with a woman to threaten a potential witness and their family with death, according to a Cumberland County grand jury indictment issued on Wednesday.

Black, 32, of Vineland and Keilah S. Brooks, 25, of Tip’s Trailer Park in Fairfield Township are named together in three counts of the seven-count indictment. The other four counts are the original offenses with which Black was charged.

Black and Brooks are charged with first-degree tampering with witnesses and informants, second-degree conspiracy, and third-degree terroristic threats.

The witness is identified only by initials, L.G. The incident allegedly occurred on Aug. 15 in Fairfield Township.

An affidavit states that Brooks sent a threatening letter to the witness.

Detective Kimberly Ghedine states in the affidavit that the investigation found relevant letters from Black and at Brooks' residence. The letters were analyzed at the Federal Bureau of Investigation laboratory in Quantico, Virginia.

Black is scheduled for trial in county Superior Court on Jan. 22, 2019, for the murder of Christian Rodgers, 26, of Millville. Rodgers was shot to death on April 9, 2017, while walking on the 1000 block of East Chestnut Avenue in Vineland. His assailant was in a car driving by, police say.

Black was arrested the following day. On April 10, the day Black was arrested, his stepfather was murdered in Millville in what allegedly was a contracted killing in revenge for Rodgers. Two of three men involved in that case have made confessions, law enforcement officials said.

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Jules R. Black, the defendant in a 2017 fatal shooting, on Monday told a Cumberland County Superior Court judge he will not take a plea bargain offer and wants to stand trial.
Joseph P. Smith, The Daily Journal

At a Superior Court hearing here on July 30, Black rejected a final plea bargain offer in favor of standing trial. The prosecution had offered a recommendation for a 30-year prison term in return for a guilty plea, versus life in prison if convicted.

The original charges against Black are first-degree murder and three second-degree charges — possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose, unlawful possession of a weapon, and being a “certain person” not allowed to have a firearm because of a past felony conviction.

Since his arrest, Black either has been in a county jail or in a state prison on a prior conviction. A Superior Court judge in April 2017 ordered him held in detention in the Rodgers case until trial.

The new charges allege that Black and Brooks engaged “in conduct which a reasonable person would believe would cause a witness or informant to absent himself from any proceeding or investigation to which he has been legally summoned.”

In addition, the indictment alleges that the two intended to “put the victim in imminent fear of death.”

Court records show that Brooks was arrested on Oct. 30. On Nov. 5, Judge Joseph Chiarello ordered her held in jail until trial.

On Nov. 27, Assignment Judge Benjamin Telsey ordered Black detained until trial on the new charges.